News from March 2017

When crude oil prices crashed into the $20 range early last year, it had most oil-producing nations quaking in their boots. That’s because few countries can make much — if any — money at that price point. I say most because there are a handful of producers that were still able to make a tidy […]

Salmon caught in the Pacific Ocean, which are imported for sale as a luxury product in UK shops, were found to contain worrying amounts of radiation. Highly toxic Cesium-134, the nuclear fallout from Fukushima, was recently found in Tillamook Bay and Gold Beach, in the US state of Oregon. The terrifying discovery was reported by […]

While most Americans acknowledge that climate change is happening, some are still unsure about the causes. They are often labeled “climate skeptics,” but that label can cause confusion or even anger. Isn’t the nature of science to be skeptical? Isn’t it good to question everything? Yes, but — Here’s what is getting lost in the […]

CRYOSTAT The doughnut-shaped fusion reactor, or tokamak, and other components are kept cool inside one of the world’s largest vacuum chambers. POLOIDAL MAGNET TOROIDAL MAGNET CENTRAL MAGNET PLASMA CHAMBER DIVERTER BLAnKET Absorbs high-energy neutrons produced during the fusion reaction. Source: ITER Organization Mika Gröndahl/The New York Times SAINT-PAUL-LEZ-DURANCE, France — At a dusty construction site […]

Today I’m yakking with return guest David Collum, the Betty R. Miller Professor of Chemistry at Cornell University, who has become a popular presence on the internet commenting on the financial system and the related predicaments of our time. He’s also been involved in the campus culture wars and is not too shy to talk […]

Bruce Beach has thought a lot about restoration over the years, except his concept has nothing to do with restoring cars and houses. For Beach, a Kansas native who moved to Canada with his wife Jean in 1970, it’s all about preserving humanity after a major catastrophe — like a full scale nuclear war. “The […]

A carrying capacity has been described as the number of organisms a region can support before environmental degradation begins to occur. Our activities at present will determine the future of the coming generations on Earth. The world’s carrying capacity is a theory which states that the world has equilibrium in the biosphere it can sustain […]

King Salman bin Abdulaziz’s trip to Asia has been characterized as either a routine visit to bolster the already strong trading ties between Saudi Arabia and Asia, an effort to diversify ties away from the U.S. or as a way to attract investments into Saudi Arabia and promote its own. The reality is that it’s a combination […]

OPEC officials on Sunday urged member nations to cut their oil production in line with an agreement last year, warning that the petroleum market would remain depressed if they didn’t. Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the 13-nation oil cartel that controls a third of global production, need to take compliance with […]

This was the latest in the spate of robot failures in the process of decommissioning the plant. Last month, a Toshiba “scorpion” robot, built to tolerate up to 1,000 sieverts of radiation, was unable to withstand the high levels of nuclear toxicity in nuclear reactor No. 2. There have been a number of other instances, causing […]

An attempt was made on President Reagan’s life only two months into his first term, and so far with all the security breaches – and the celebrities selling the idea it’s “cool” to kill Trump – are we seeing history repeat itself?

Although water has remained with mankind for ages, the quantity and quality is a matter of concern to many. The question on the lips of people, particularly in Nigeria where meeting water needs has remained a mirage, is how safe is the little available. Nigerians are said to be surrounded by water yet they find it […]

Saudi Oil Minister Khalid al-Falih has criticised the West for “promoting the myth of peak oil demand and scare-mongering over vast stranded resources in the fossil-fuel industry”. Speaking at a summit in Houston, Texas, he said that a “campaign of attacks” on the oil industry will “deter trillions of dollars of vitally needed investment, leading […]

“How can we use our hard wiring to communicate to the herd that it is time to veer off from a race towards the cliff’s edge which most don’t yet see?” In the concrete desert that is downtown Los Angeles we were blessed to find a green oasis at the corner of Vermont and […]

My great-great grandfather, Ferdinando Bardi (1822-?). The story of the branch of the Bardi family to which I belong is unextricably linked to the great world cycle of the fossil fuels. There was a time, long ago, when the Bardi’s of Florence were both rich and noble. But that branch of the family disappeared […]

Perhaps the Bank of Russia knows something the world doesn’t. As the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies prepare to meet for a review of their production cuts this weekend, the central bank of the world’s biggest energy exporter is hunkering down for years of oil near $40 a barrel. While analysts in a […]

America’s nuclear sector is under immense economic pressure – a consequence of both its high operating costs and low natural gas prices anchored under US$3.00 per million BTU. As a result, the long-term profitability of America’s fleet of over 60 nuclear plants is at risk, which has hastened the retirement of some nuclear assets from […]

Big Oil is muscling in on shale country. ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron are jumping into American shale with gusto, planning to spend a combined $10 billion this year, up from next to nothing only a few years ago. The giants are gaining a foothold in West Texas with such projects as Bongo 76-43, […]

Iran denied on Saturday U.S. accusations that its fast-attack boats were “harassing” warships at the mouth of the Gulf, and said Washington would be responsible for any clashes in the key oil shipping route. U.S. Navy commanders earlier accused Iran of jeopardizing international navigation by “harassing” warships passing through the Strait of Hormuz and said […]

Ultimately, no one can stop what is coming. The haves and have nots of the next, gritty era of aftermath will be those who have the means to survive when the system has failed, and those who do not. For the wealthy, and prepper minded elite, hidden fortified layers purchased for insurance will preserve most […]

In the late 1980s, some people in the oil industry were said to have bumper stickers reading, “God give me one more boom and I promise not to mess it up.” (When the price was over $100, I joked about people investing in bumper stickers.) With the recent recovery in oil prices to $50 a […]

The Trump administration announced on Friday that it would issue a permit for construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, a long-disputed project that would link oil producers in Canada and North Dakota with refiners and export terminals on the Gulf Coast. The announcement, by the State Department, reversed the position of the Obama administration. It […]

It’s been an uphill battle for the coastal prefecture of Fukushima, Japan, since an earthquake and tsunami devastated the region in 2011, causing a nuclear disaster at its power plant. Six years later, workers are still battling to decommission the plant, where radiation is deadly. Officials expect the cleaning won’t be finished for decades. “This […]

The collapse of civilization quite frankly isn’t half as interesting to me as the dysfunction of civilization is. The main elephant in the room is that this drastic increase in our standard of living might have led to material wealth, but it has merely lead to an epidemic of miserable dysfunctional people, kept alive by […]

The Washington political scene is looking less like The Apprentice and more and more like the old Marlon Perkins Wild Kingdom show, with giant crocodiles slithering down the muddy banks to encircle Donald Trump paddling fecklessly in his leaky dugout while a chorus of angry birds shrieks in the surrounding treetops. Yes, it really looks […]

In the world’s deepest gold mine, workers will venture 2.5 miles (4 km) below the Earth’s surface to extract from a 30-inch (0.8m) wide vein of gold-rich ore. While these depths are impressive, mining is limited by the frailty of the human body. Going much deeper would be incredibly dangerous, as limitations such as heat, […]

Over the long run, the oil business is under threat. There are various arguments about why that might happen. Peak supply people argue we are running out of oil. Peak demanders say that market saturation, efficiency, and new technologies will cause oil demand to peak and decline. Similarly, clean energy proponents argue oil will be […]

Big oil is starting to challenge the biggest utilities in the race to erect wind turbines at sea. Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Statoil ASA and Eni SpA are moving into multi-billion-dollar offshore wind farms in the North Sea and beyond. They’re starting to score victories against leading power suppliers including Dong Energy A/S and Vattenfall AB in […]

The Japanese government should consider a fundamental change in its current nuclear energy policy if it wants to recover the public’s trust in nuclear power, writes Tatsujiro Suzuki, Director of the Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition at Nagasaki University. According to Suzuki, staying on the current path will undermine Japan’s economic and political […]

Drilling the Arctic region for oil cannot be justified against the background of the major shift in the global oil production paradigm, Goldman Sachs’ lead European commodities equity specialist said on Thursday. “Overall the idea that we have to go into the Arctic to find new resources I think has been dispelled by the enormous […]

Saudi Arabia …
- taking Saudi Armco public
- while pushing @Tesla to go private
… to me is a clear sign that the “#PeakOil shit” is starting to hit the fan
Buckle up. The next 10 years will be a bumpy ride.